DEMOCRATS CHOOSE BRYON SHORT FOR THE SPECIAL
ELECTION

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

Brandywine Hundred Democrats selected Bryon H. Short
to run in a special election after former state Rep.
David D. Brady, regarded as the likely candidate
because of his name recognition and experience, had
second thoughts about a possible comeback and dropped
out.

Short, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Thomas R. Carper,
will oppose Republican James T. Bowers in the campaign
to replace Wayne A. Smith, who gave up his seat and his
post as House Republican majority leader for a job
running a health care trade association.

The election has not been scheduled yet but is
expected to be held in April.

Short, 41, of Highland Woods, emerged as the
Democrats' choice Monday evening at a meeting attended
by about 40 party members at Lancashire Elementary
School on Naamans Road.

Short, who worked for Carper when he was a
congressman and governor, currently is involved in
small-scale neighborhood redevelopment, fixing up
blighted properties in Wilmington.

Going into the meeting, the Democrats had expected to
winnow a field of five candidates, but Brady and Stephen
P. Tanzer, who ran against Smith in 2004, both withdrew
before the vote. Brady, a legislator for 20 years until
he lost to Smith in 2002 when their districts were
combined in redistricting, said family considerations
led him to change his mind.

With all 11 members of the 7th Representative
District Democratic Committee present and voting, Short
won 7-4 by written ballot against Carl Colantuono, who
lost to Smith in 2006. Jeffrey K. Politis, a political
newcomer who is a Hercules manager from Arden, did not
get any votes.

"Tomorrow we crank up the campaign. My job is going
to be out meeting with people, making that personal
connection," Short said.

The Democrats have some catching up to do. Yard signs
already were evident in the district for Bowers, 48, a
Verizon sales manager and former Brandywine Region
Republican vice chair who lives next door to Smith in
Clair Manor.

The outcome of the election will not change the
balance of power in the House of Representatives, where
the Republicans have a 23-18 majority, but it will say
something about the political leanings in Brandywine
Hundred, which used to be a hard-core Republican vote
until it was cracked in 2004 by the election of state
Rep. Diana M. McWilliams in one of the area's four
districts.

The registration favors the Republicans, who hold a
500-vote advantage over the Democrats in the district.
Smith won nine elections in a row there, since he first
was elected in 1990.

There was no doubt that the Democrats were taking
this election seriously. House Democratic Minority
Leader Robert F. Gilligan and Minority Whip Helene M.
Keeley both attended the meeting to watch the candidate
selection.

Special elections for replacing House members are not
subtle campaigns. Turnout typically is microscopic -- it
was 15 percent in the last one that sent state Rep.
Hazel D. Plant, a Wilmington Democrat, to Dover in 2001
-- so it comes down to which party performs better in
getting out its vote.

"The mechanics are not hard. The candidate's job is
to make the Democrats vote for him. My job is to get
those Democrats out," said John D. Daniello, the
Democratic state chair who lives in the district
himself.

As much as the special election is brute political
force, the Democrats also signaled that their campaign
strategy will be to tie Bowers to Smith and his
conservative politics.